Date Published: 12/06/09

Yar'Adua won't resign -Family

…As Presidency set to spend N1.5 billion on Aso Rock Clinic

….German, U.S doctors moved to Saudi Arabia

…Yayale, Yuguda jostle for Vice Presidency

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua

Despite the failing health of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who has been hospitalized at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre,  Saudi Arabia for almost two weeks, family members have insisted that the President would not succumb to pressure to resign from office. To this end, a budget of about N1.5 Billion has been earmarked to procure medical equipment supplies for the State House Clinic, Abuja.

This is even as specialists from Germany and the United States have been invited to Saudi Arabia to take a closer look at the President state of health to ascertain the possibility of his early return to Nigeria.

Eminent Nigerians and politicians have advice that the President resign from office to enable him seek proper medical attention to his failing health condition.

Also, doctors at the Horst Schmidt Klinik, Wiesbaden, Germany where President Yar’Adua hitherto received treatment for Churg-Strauss Syndrome while he was Governor of Katsina State had advised that the Nigerian President quit power so his treatment won’t be interrupted by his political responsibilities.

But a source in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia quoted a family member as saying that the decision of the family is that the President would return to Nigeria once certified fit by doctors and complete his tenure.

It was learnt that the Yar’Adua family regained more confident that the President can continue in office shortly after he was released from the Intensive Care Unit, ICU where he was largely on life support.

Pointblanknews.com gathered that the Yar’Adua’s family decision has been largely based on the insistence of the President’s wife, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua that the President would not resign from office over his health condition. Her decision had sharply divided the Yar’Adua’s family but some very close family members, it was learnt have been able to persuade the opposing camp within the family to see reasons with the first lady.

Other source disclosed that some very influential politicians in Nigeria had pressured on the first lady not to allow her ailing husband succumb to any pressure to quit. According to the source, “some people had told madam that the consequences of Mr. President resigning would be too grave not just the family but some interests that needed to be protected.”

Those “interests that needed to be protected” Pointblanknews.com gathered are politicians who have been hiding under the cover of President Yar’Adua to either evade arrest and conviction and continue in a large scale corruption.

However, Pointblanknews.com gathered that as soon as the President was out of the ICU, the Saudi Doctors recommended that more experts be invited from Germany where the President usually go for treatment and the United States to double check on the possibility of certifying the President fit enough to return back to Nigeria.

A source who volunteered information to Pointblanknews.com under anonymity said the decision was based on the Yar’Adua’s family insistence that everything humanly possible be done to ensure the President returns to Nigeria.

Meanwhile as part of effort to keep the President alive at all cost to continue in office, the Presidency plans to expand the State House Medical Center and cause the National Assembly to approve a whooping sum of about N1,052,820,475 for the expansion project in the 2010 budget.

Out of the proposed expenditures, the sum of N386 Million has been set aside for medical equipments while N162 Million would be used for the extension work at the State House Clinic. In 2009, a sum of N119 Million was set aside for the same extension work at the State House Clinic.

A breakdown of the over N1billion appropriated in the 2010 budget also indicates that N67,850,000 was budgeted for medical expenditure, as against the N13,925,000 in 2009.

On another heading titled “drugs and medical supplies” an allocation of N394,000,000 is appropriated as against the N242,100,000 that was assigned for the same subhead in 2009.

Notwithstanding the decision within the Yar’Adua family to have the President continue in office, names have continued to be thrown around on who becomes Vice-President should the ailing President throw in the towel. Under the constitution, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan would take over as President and a Vice President would have to be nominated within the ruling party.

The Northern political leaders are said to have stated an intense search for a strong candidate who would not only serve the interest of the North but who would be good enough to be presented as a Presidential candidate in 2011.

As at the time of filing this report, sources informed pointbklanknews.com that Secretary to Government, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed and Governor Isa Yuguda, an In-law to the Yar’Adua’s are the two contenders for the VP. While Yayale, a former Head of Service and Minister of Defense under former President Olusegun Obasanjo is enjoying support from the Obasanjo political camp within the PDP, Yuguda, is banking on the support of the Yar’Adua family and political camp.

The Obsanjo’s camp is of the opinion that Yayale would be a strong and loyal candidate whose emergence would help in building the crumpling Obasanjo’s political camp within the PDP. Obasanjo’s political camp has been destabilized since the coming in of President Yar’Adua. Chief Bode George, a key leader within the Obsanjo’s camp in PDP is currently serving jail term for corruption while Nuhu Ribadu and Mallam El-Rufai are both on exile.

Although, sources hinted that even though the name of Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido has been mentioned, he lacks enough support within the camp and the North to clinch the position should it become vacant.